Frustration over handling of issue

Farmer George Mills backs the changes but is frustrated, believing the issue has been poorly handled by the Government.

"For this to come out the day before the election is terrible," he told 7.30.

"We need to sit down and discuss with people who have an interest in this matter, sensibly."

Farm workers can currently use firearms that do not reload as quickly as pump action firearms, but he said farmers were still struggling to control grazing wildlife and birds, which was costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in crop damage.

"The requests we have made are only minor requests to the firearms regulation," he said.

"It is just to make the job a little bit more possible for us to do, which is to control these animals."

Pat Allen from the state's Police Association is open to a review of gun laws, but said he did have personal concerns about increasing access to certain firearms.

Mr Allen was one of the first on the scene of the Port Arthur massacre.

"Just have a look at the mess that's going on in other countries, we're doing OK," he said.

"The visions and the nightmares still haunt me, 22 years later," she said.

"It's something you never, ever recover from."

Ms Loughton, who was injured during the massacre, said she was "appalled" by the proposed changes.

"I am absolutely horrified. I'm just — I can't believe it."

She is already penning a letter to members of the Tasmanian Government, who she said should feel ashamed.

"I have a voice and I intend to use it," she said.

"[The Port Arthur victims] must be remembered and there was 35 of them, and their lives were cut short and as we know there were two very young, little girls and in this picture about people's rights to own guns, that mustn't be forgotten."